saltash.net community school

Art work created by A Level students from saltash.net has recently featured in a unique exhibition in Truro Cathedral.

In September 2011, 6th Form students currently studying AS and A2 Art, worked in the Cathedral over the period of two days, drawing inspiration from the magnificent building and its stunning architecture. Two months were then spent in school exploring the various possibilities and avenues for study that the Cathedral had provided. Students worked with a range of media including Paint, Pencil, Collage, Printing (dry point etching and Lino), Sculpture, Photography, iMedia, Stained Glass, Fabric painting and Embroidery.

The resulting exhibition, mounted by saltash.net’s Art Technician and ex student, Michelle Moss, has run in the Cathedral for the last two weeks and it provides a representative sample of the range of work produced by the A Level students.

Head of Art at saltash.net, Bob Charlton, who organised the event in collaboration with Sarah Hughes, Head of Truro Cathedral Education, said, “The exhibition clearly shows the superb, creative resource we have in Cornwall that is Truro Cathedral. For the A Level students to see their work displayed against the grandeur of the building has been excellent, a truly aspirational opportunity.”

Art Exhibition - Truro Cathedral

 

On Friday the 4th of May, shamelessly capitalising on Star Wars day, saltash.net community school students took part in a Mathematics and Science themed experiment to test their own strength and find out who was the strongest student.

After learning exactly what forces were, how they act on us, and how we measure them, students used a variety of equipment to see exactly how much force they could exert on an object. In groups of 4, students matched strength, insults and pure intimidation to compete for the ultimate price – a pack of chocolate buttons and a limited edition A5 certificate.

After finding their strength, students then used their Maths knowledge to calculate the average mean strength of the whole group, which transpired as 368.91, and then compare it to see if they were above or below.

The event, attended by able and interested KS3 students, gave some interesting results with students’ strength ranging from 100N all the way up to 550N. Boys did take the lead, with the strongest student being Year 9 pupil Austin Furniss. However, pleasingly second and third place were taken by Year 8 girls. The Trematon Unit’s strongest student title was taken by Tome Beswick with a score of 375N.

After the event, organiser Scott Wieprecht, the enrichment coordinator for Mathematics at saltash.net said, “This was a great event which really got the students engaged and thinking about their Science and Maths. What was more pleasing was the diversity of the students who took part. We had a mix of pupils from all years, but also from all ability sets, getting practically involved in their studies.” The event was such a success there are already plans to stage a more extravagant experiment next year, but Mr Wieprecht is keeping the details close to his chest. “The amount of interest in what we thought would just be a small session was phenomenal! Plans for next year’s event are already under way, and, without wanting to give too much away, I will say it will make the Big Bang look like a tiny pop. I would also like to thank Grant Taylor, a Science teacher at the school, for his expert assistance and advice in helping to organise the event.”

May the 4th be with you

 

Ever since ex Saltash students Sharron and Tamsyn Berry came into school at the start of the Summer Term to lead assemblies on their Storybook Dads Charity, students and staff at saltash.net have immersed themselves in supporting this local cause and finding ways of both raising money and raising awareness of the excellent work the charity undertakes.

During the week of 16th April, Sharron and Tamsyn Berry, accompanied by ex Saltash Community School deputy head, Bob Monroe, led a series of moving and through provoking assemblies on the work they do creating CDs and DVDs for children who are separated from their parents for a variety of reasons. Although the charity began by working with parents serving a prison sentence, more recently their work has expanded to support families where a parent is away for long periods of time, for example in the armed services.

As a result of listening to the assemblies, staff and students committed themselves to raising funds. Science teacher, Helen Ripper, set up a Just Giving site for Storybook Dads to enable all sponsorship from her participation in the Great West Run to go towards the charity. Helen, who completed the run on Sunday 6th May said, “So far I have raised £421 and counting... Money keeps coming in! Storybook Dads are a great local charity, working to keep families together, and I was proud to run for them. The run went well, even though it was boiling on Sunday! I’m staggered by the generosity and support of everyone so far.“

In addition, a group of students from years 8, 9 and 10 are organising a staff and student version of BBC’s ‘The Voice’ in July. They are hoping that the fun lunchtime event will also raise a lot of money to support the excellent work of this charity.

With this summer’s GCSE examinations commencing on Monday 14th May, students and staff at saltash.net community school made sure that the last day the Year 11 students would be together as a year group, on Friday 11th May, was as special, memorable and enjoyable as it could be.

The 230 strong cohort of students arrived for their leavers’ day in an amazing array of fancy dress costumes. Not to be outdone, the Year 11 pastoral team, including Head of Year, Dave Stokes, and Assistant Head of Year, Eileen Sloggett, also dressed up for the occasion and certainly gave the students a run for their money!

As there were a range of vocational pathway courses running as normal on Friday morning across the South East Cornwall schools’ consortium, all students attended lessons until 1.00pm when everyone then gathered together in the main hall for a farewell message from their Head of Year. This was followed by a BBQ prepared by the school’s Food Technology team and a Real Live Music Club open air concert led by Head of ICT, Mr Angus Reith, and featuring items by Year 11 students.

Later on in the afternoon all of Year 11 students, accompanied by their tutors, attended their final assembly which showcased the considerable range of talent present in Year 11, and included outstanding musical performances from Rosina Russell, Jade Cannings, Oliver Gilford, Chris Stafford, Joe Butler, Kyle Boyd, Harry Miller, Charlie Hannaford, Harry Moir & Beulah Jones. The ICT and film making skills of the students were demonstrated in an excellent film of ‘memories’ produced by Joshua Clarke & Michael Libby.

Headteacher, Isobel Bryce, addressed the year group at the end of the assembly, wishing them well with the forthcoming examinations and success and happiness in their chosen career paths, which for many will see them returning to saltash.net to attend its 6th form.

Assistant Head, Pete Bond, commenting on his involvement with the Year 11 students over the last few years said, “We are really proud of our young people and of what they contribute to our school and to our local community. They certainly deserve to do really well this summer.”

Year 11 Last Day

 

On the 18^th May we are introducing a more convenient way to pay for curriculum enrichment week activities, school trips, after school clubs and much more online, using a secure service called ParentPay.

ParentPay - our new online payment service

We’re pleased to announce that we will shortly be accepting payments online for items such as curriculum enrichment week, school trips and after school activities.  Using a secure website called ParentPay you will be able to pay online using your debit card.  ParentPay will be our preferred method of making payments to school.

We are hoping that everyone will benefit from our new payment facility. ParentPay is easy-to-use and will offer you the freedom to make online payments whenever and wherever you like, 24/7 - safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available and that funds will reach school safely.

Parents will have a secure online account, activated using a unique username and password; making a payment using your debit card is straightforward and ParentPay holds an electronic record of all payments for you to view at a later date. When you make a payment, an e-mail confirmation is sent to you, giving you reassurance that the transaction has been successful.

In addition, ParentPay offers you the ability to set automated email/SMS reminders ensuring you never miss a payment and helping you keep your child’s school meal account in credit at all times.

We hope you will support us in achieving our goal to become a cashless school and help you to payments more efficiently. Your support in using ParentPay will help the school enormously, thank you.

Getting started with ParentPay

We will shortly be sending you your account activation username and password, once you receive these:

• Visit www.parentpay.com
• Enter your Activation username and password in the Account Login section of the homepage.  NB. These are for one-time use only, you will choose your own username and password for future access during the activation process
• Provide all the necessary information and choose your new username and password for your account - registering your email address will enable us to send you receipts and reminders
• Once activation is complete you can go to straight to My payment items, select which item(s) you wish to pay for and follow the simple on-screen instructions to complete your payment

Please be assured that ParentPay offers the highest security available and no card details are stored on the system or are accessible by the school or ParentPay.  If you have any questions, please contact the school Finance Office.

We look forward to your support in using ParentPay as it will help us further support teaching and learning by reducing the burden of income collection in the classrooms and school office.

For more information please click here. Link to https://www.parentpay.com/PR1/Info/PP_Parents.aspx

You can now download the latest school newsletter by following the link below

• Click to download the Spring Community Newsletter (2.4MB)

thinking of choosing saltash.net?

If you, your friends or family shop at Sainsbury’s or Tesco, please help support our school by collecting the Active Kids or Schools and Clubs vouchers received when you shop. There are collection boxes in the library but vouchers can also be handed in at reception, or to PE staff. Last year the PE and Art departments benefitted from items received through the scheme. Thank you for your support.